Global Pulse

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  • Bodies of two hikers missing for decades found after Swiss glacier melts

    Bodies of two hikers missing for decades found after Swiss glacier melts

    Decades after two Belgian climbers vanished while exploring the Swiss Alps, the accelerating melt of one of the region’s most well-known glaciers has finally solved a 34-year-old missing persons case. Local law enforcement confirmed this week that DNA testing has positively identified two bodies found by a passing hiker on the Trift Glacier, located south of Lucerne, as the 39-year-old and 41-year-old mountaineers who disappeared near Weissmies Mountain back in 1992.

    The hiker first stumbled on the remains on July 26, after rising temperatures drove enough glacial ice melt to expose the bodies that had been entombed for more than three decades. Valais regional police launched an immediate recovery mission shortly after the discovery, moving the remains to a cantonal hospital in Sion for formal forensic identification.

    Weissmies Mountain, a 4,000-meter-plus peak in the popular Saas Valley mountaineering region, has long drawn climbing enthusiasts from across the globe. Regional authorities maintain a centralized missing persons database stretching back to 1925, and officials note that the majority of open cases involve people who disappeared while traversing the Alps’ icy terrain, or in nearby rivers and alpine waterways.

    This latest discovery is far from an isolated incident. Police confirmed that glacial melt driven by rising temperatures has repeatedly uncovered the remains of long-missing people in recent years. In 2023, for example, remains found on a glacier near the iconic Matterhorn were confirmed to belong to a German climber who had been missing since 1986.

    The unearthing of the 1992 climbers shines a stark new light on the dramatic pace of glacial retreat across the European Alps, a trend scientists overwhelmingly tie to human-caused climate change. Data from Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (Glamos) shows that Swiss glaciers have lost 25% of their total ice volume over the 10-year period ending in 2025, after already seeing record-breaking ice loss in 2022 and 2023. Glamos recorded an additional 3% reduction in glacial coverage across Switzerland in 2025 alone.

    Global monitoring data backs up this alarming trend. Copernicus, the European Commission’s climate monitoring service, reports that glacial shrinkage has accelerated worldwide since the 1990s, with an even steeper rate of loss starting in 2000. Switzerland has experienced some of the most dramatic melt on the continent.

    Beyond revealing long-buried remains, the steady loss of glacial ice and reduced winter snowpack linked to rising global average temperatures has created widespread disruption for Switzerland. Unseasonably warm conditions at high altitudes have threatened the future of many alpine ski resorts and forced the cancellation of multiple high-profile winter competitions in recent years.

  • Premier League returns with Arsenal eyeing title dynasty

    Premier League returns with Arsenal eyeing title dynasty

    The English Premier League’s new season is finally upon us, launching Friday with defending champions Arsenal opening their title defense at the Emirates Stadium against newly promoted Coventry City. Just 34 days on from the conclusion of the last men’s World Cup, the world’s most-watched club football league returns with a fresh narrative: a seismic shift in the league’s biggest clubs has left defending champions Arsenal as the overwhelming pre-season favorites to etch their names into history.

    Arsenal ended a 22-year title drought last season, lifting the Premier League trophy after years of near-misses that left fans and pundits questioning the club’s big-match temperament. That long-awaited triumph was a cathartic turning point for the North London side, and now manager Mikel Arteta is targeting a second consecutive title — a feat the club has not achieved since the 1930s.

    Arteta’s side has entered the new season reinforced by a string of shrewd transfer moves. The club has already added elite midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and winger Christos Tzolis to their ranks, with a deal for Aston Villa center-back Ezri Konsa close to completion. This strengthened squad proved their early credentials with a dominant 3-0 victory over Manchester City in last weekend’s Community Shield, sending a clear warning to all title challengers that the Gunners mean to retain their crown.

    For Arteta, the pressure of being the hunted side — the team every opponent raises their game to beat — is a challenge he welcomes. “We start from scratch, from zero, and we’re going to have to prove we are at the level to go back to that position again,” the Spaniard told reporters ahead of the opening match. “We need to show that desire, and the ambition to be better than what we were last season, a month ago, a week ago. If you give me the choice, I want to be first, I want to be hunted, and I want to be in control of our future, rather than depending on somebody else.”

    Acknowledging the 38-game league season is a grueling test of endurance rather than a short sprint, Arteta added: “We need to breathe because it’s going to be a long marathon. We have the ability to improve, to evolve, and that’s what I sense and I feel around the club, especially around the players.” The lessons learned from years of falling short before last season’s title win, Arteta believes, have prepared his squad to handle the weight of expectation this term.

    This season marks a historic transition for two of Arsenal’s biggest traditional rivals. Manchester City, last season’s runners-up, begin their first campaign under new manager Enzo Maresca on Sunday against Bournemouth, following the departure of Pep Guardiola. Guardiola stepped down at the end of last season after a legendary 10-year tenure that delivered 20 major trophies, transforming City into a global football powerhouse. Maresca, formerly of Chelsea, faces the unenviable task of matching the Catalan’s unprecedented success.

    Over at Liverpool, another new era begins: iconic forward Mohamed Salah has left for Turkish club Trabzonspor, and new manager Andoni Iraola takes charge of his first match this Sunday when the Reds travel to face Newcastle United. Iraola, the former Bournemouth boss, was hired to replace Arne Slot, who was sacked after Liverpool finished a disappointing fifth last season, outside of the top-four Champions League places.

    Other high-profile new managerial regimes get underway this opening weekend. Xabi Alonso, who was sacked by Real Madrid after less than eight months in charge last term, begins his reign as Chelsea manager with a tense West London derby against Fulham on Monday. Chelsea finished a dismal 10th last season despite a massive outlay on transfer talent, and Alonso has made it clear his side is hungry to prove their credentials this term. “We feel ready. The desire, the ambition, the hunger to start the Premier League is already in the building, looking forward to it,” Alonso said.

    Elsewhere in the opening round of fixtures, Manchester United kick off their campaign on Saturday away to Hull City, who are returning to the top flight for the first time since 2017. United manager Michael Carrick has strengthened his squad with the additions of Belgium midfielder Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa, defender Andrey Santos and goalkeeper Karl Darlow, with a move for Brighton’s Carlos Baleba still in the works.

    Big-spending Tottenham Hotspur, who narrowly avoided relegation in a shocking 2024-25 campaign, travel to Brentford on Saturday. The North London club has poured more than 200 million pounds into two high-profile signings, Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, who are both set to feature in the opening match. Europa League winners Aston Villa, meanwhile, have been decimated by player departures this off-season and head to Brighton for their opening fixture on Sunday.

    While the departures of Guardiola and Salah have marked the end of an era for two of the league’s biggest clubs, the Premier League remains brimming with elite world-class talent and exciting emerging young stars, set to deliver another season of high-stakes, unpredictable drama over the coming nine months.

  • Eight killed in plane crash at remote Alaskan military site, air force says

    Eight killed in plane crash at remote Alaskan military site, air force says

    A tragic aviation accident has left eight people dead after a contracted civilian aircraft crashed at a remote United States Air Force installation in Southwest Alaska, US military officials confirmed this week. The crash occurred shortly after 12 p.m. local time Thursday, which translates to 20:00 GMT, in the vicinity of Cape Newenham, the location of a long-range radar station’s airfield. The United States Air Force Alaskan Command confirmed that rescue teams deployed to the isolated crash site have found no survivors among those on the plane. According to command records, the flight originated at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and was traveling approximately 450 air miles west to reach its destination at Cape Newenham. As of initial reports, the identities of the passengers and the full details of their purpose at the radar site have not been released, pending notification of the victims’ next of kin. However, Lieutenant General Robert Davis, head of US Air Force Alaskan Command, described all those on board as committed specialists carrying out critical work in Alaska’s harsh operating conditions. “This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve,” Davis said in an official statement. “Our absolute priority right now is providing unwavering support to their families, friends and teammates during this devastating time. We are profoundly grateful for the swift and tireless response of our search and recovery professionals.” Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska regional office, confirmed the breakdown of those on board in comments reported by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner: two crew members working as pilots and six passengers. An official investigation into the cause of the crash is currently ongoing, led by federal safety and military authorities. The Cape Newenham radar installation is a key node in the Alaska Radar System, a sprawling network of remote monitoring outposts designed to track aircraft moving through or approaching Alaska’s large national airspace. Located along Alaska’s sparsely populated southwest coast, the site operates in one of the most geographically challenging regions in the United States, where harsh weather and isolation create unique obstacles for air travel and emergency response.

  • Rare disease drug Tavneos recalled in Republic of Ireland

    Rare disease drug Tavneos recalled in Republic of Ireland

    A critical recall of the rare autoimmune disease treatment Tavneos (generic name Avacopan) is now underway across the Republic of Ireland, following a sweeping decision by European regulators to pull the drug from the regional market.

    Manufactured by U.S.-based biotechnology giant Amgen and distributed globally through a network of regional partner pharmaceutical firms, Tavneos is specifically designed to treat adults living with severe, rare autoimmune conditions that trigger dangerous inflammation of blood vessels. Until recently, it had been authorized for use across the European Union, including Ireland.

    The chain of regulatory action began earlier this year, when Japanese pharmaceutical firm Kissei – which holds marketing rights to Tavneos in Japan – published safety data in May covering more than 8,500 Japanese patients treated with the drug since its 2022 launch in the country. The data showed 20 patient deaths among this treated group. To date, regulators have not confirmed whether Tavneos was the direct cause of these fatalities, and Amgen has previously pushed back on causal links, noting that “these figures include cases for which a causal relationship with the product could not be determined.”

    Despite the unresolved connection, European drug regulators moved forward with restrictive action. In July, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU’s top drug safety body, issued a formal recommendation to revoke Tavneos’ existing marketing authorization across the bloc. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, finalized and approved that recommendation earlier this August.

    In line with the EU decision, Irish health regulators have moved quickly to implement the recall. Distribution of Tavneos from Irish pharmaceutical wholesalers halted on 11 August, and on Thursday, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), Ireland’s national drug safety watchdog, issued an official order to recall all remaining wholesale stock of the drug.

    According to reports from Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, around 60 patients in Ireland received Tavneos treatment before the EMA’s recommendation was issued. The HPRA clarified that the drug was only ever prescribed by specialist consultants with specific expertise in managing these rare vascular autoimmune conditions, and many of these clinicians had already begun transitioning patients to alternative treatments ahead of the formal recall.

    For patients currently undergoing treatment with Tavneos, the HPRA issued a clear public advisory: do not discontinue use of the drug without first consulting your treating specialist physician, to avoid dangerous health complications from unmanaged disease.

    The recall is not limited to Ireland. France’s national drug safety agency, ANSM, has announced that a full recall of all existing Tavneos batches across the country will launch on 19 August. Across the English Channel, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed back in June that it was conducting its own independent review of Tavneos’ benefits and risks, and has not yet issued a final decision. Outlets have contacted the MHRA for additional comment on the agency’s current stance following the EU’s withdrawal of authorization.

  • The inside story of how Trabzonspor pulled off Salah deal

    The inside story of how Trabzonspor pulled off Salah deal

    In a transfer move that sent shockwaves across the global football community, Egyptian superstar Mohamed Salah has put pen to paper on a two-year contract with Turkish side Trabzonspor, capping off an unlikely pursuit that defied widespread expectations. The historic signing was celebrated in front of a roaring crowd of 35,000 passionate fans at Trabzonspor’s Papara Park stadium, where even club president Ertugrul Dogan — the architect of the deal — could barely contain his excitement over pulling off one of the most surprising high-profile transfers in recent football history.

    Dogan, a native Trabzon local who built his business empire across real estate, hazelnut trading, and the biofuel energy sector before taking over as club president in 2023, has openly described the capture of Salah as a transformative moment for his boyhood club. The deal has already sent ripples of excitement across global football, with many observers left wondering how a mid-sized Turkish club, without Champions League football and just one domestic league title since its 1970s and early 1980s heyday, convinced one of the game’s biggest names to spurn more high-profile suitors from Saudi Arabia and the United States.

    Trabzonspor is based in the coastal Black Sea city of Trabzon, a city of 800,000 located in Turkey’s far northeast near the Georgian border that does not even rank among Turkey’s 20 largest urban centers. But Dogan argues the city and its club hold a unique, intangible appeal that sets it apart from other destinations. “We’re the biggest one-club city in the world,” Dogan told BBC Sport Africa and BBC Turkish in an exclusive interview. When Salah asked why he should choose Trabzonspor, Dogan’s answer was simple: “You can be sure you will meet a group of supporters unlike any you have experienced before. You’ll feel the genuine love those people have inside them.”

    For Dogan, the signing of Salah is the centerpiece of a broader club strategy that balances investment in emerging young talent with high-profile experienced stars. In the most recent off-season, Trabzonspar turned a significant profit by selling 20-year-old Ivorian midfielder Christ Inao Oulai to Fiorentina and 22-year-old Brazilian forward Felipe Augusto to Zenit St Petersburg after just one season at the club. Those outgoing transfers were replaced by promising young prospects from across Europe and Africa, while Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana returned for a second season on loan from Manchester United. But the Salah deal stands alone as a potential game-changer for the club’s global profile.

    Dogan has been transparent about the financial terms of the deal, confirming Salah will earn €17m per year, plus 20% of all revenue from merchandise bearing his name. While the transfer does not promise an immediate direct financial return, Dogan says the intangible value of global attention and fan engagement is immeasurable. Even after raising season ticket prices to help fund the deal, fan enthusiasm has outstripped all expectations: nearly 70% of Salah’s annual salary was already covered by season ticket sales within just five days of the announcement. The club initially targeted 25,000 season ticket sales, but now projects to pass 30,000, with major corporate sponsors from Turkey, Europe, and the Arab world reaching out to get involved with what fans have dubbed “Salah-mania.”

    Salah, who scored 191 Premier League goals and sits fourth on the league’s all-time top scorers list after nine seasons with Liverpool, was widely expected to move to either the Saudi Pro League, where many elite global stars have landed in recent years, or join Lionel Messi in Major League Soccer in the United States. But Dogan says the deal came together surprisingly quickly once negotiations entered their final stage. Trabzonspor had initially been tracking Salah since the 2022 World Cup, while the player was in talks with multiple suitors, and respected an unwritten Turkish club convention that holds no club will disrupt another’s ongoing negotiations. Once other interested Turkish clubs pulled out of the running, talks progressed rapidly, with the full deal concluded in just five to six days.

    Initial discussions took place over Zoom while Salah was on holiday in Mykonos, Greece, before the player traveled to Istanbul for his medical. Dogan intentionally chose Istanbul for the medical to show Salah the scale of fan support across the entire country, not just in Trabzon — and the gamble paid off: thousands of fans turned out at the airport to greet the superstar mid-week on a working day. Salah made his debut as a second-half substitute in a 1-1 away draw against Kasimpasa on the opening weekend of the new Turkish Super Lig season, and is set to make his much-anticipated home debut in Trabzon this coming Sunday.

    Trabzonspor, nicknamed the Black Sea Storm, has enjoyed mixed success in recent seasons: it claimed the 2021-22 Super Lig title shortly before Dogan took over as president, and has finished third, seventh, and third in the league under his leadership, while claiming the Turkish Cup last season. The club is currently competing in the Europa League play-offs, holding a narrow 1-0 first-leg deficit against Hungary’s Ferencvaros heading into the second leg. Beyond the immediate buzz of the transfer, Dogan says he hopes the signing of Salah will put Trabzon on the map as a global destination for top young talent, helping develop prospects to move on to bigger European clubs while creating a blueprint for sustainable future success. For Dogan and Trabzonspor’s millions of passionate fans, the signing of Salah has already delivered a moment of joy that will last for years to come.

  • Erin Holland and Ben Cutting welcome baby daughter after difficult five-year journey

    Erin Holland and Ben Cutting welcome baby daughter after difficult five-year journey

    For celebrity couple Erin Holland, a well-known model and television presenter, and Ben Cutting, an Australian professional cricketer, a years-long battle against infertility has ended in joy, as the pair have welcomed their first child, a baby girl. The happy news of their daughter’s arrival on August 18 was shared with fans and followers via the couple’s joint Instagram account, where Holland posted a series of soft black-and-white photographs capturing the intimate first moments of their new life as a family of three.

    In her heartfelt caption accompanying the photos, Holland summed up the years of heartache and uncertainty that preceded her daughter’s birth, writing, “All of a sudden, it all makes sense. It was always you.” The announcement quickly flooded with messages of congratulations from across the Australian media and sports industries, including warm notes from Holland’s colleagues at Channel 7. Kylie Gillies, co-host of the network’s top-rated *The Morning Show*, called the birth “beautiful news,” while television personality and former veterinarian Dr Chris Brown added, “How special. Congrats you guys. The best news.”

    What makes this birth particularly meaningful is the extraordinary path the couple walked to reach this moment. Since their 2021 wedding, Holland and Cutting have been open about their devastating fertility struggles, choosing to speak out to normalize experiences that many couples still hide. In total, the pair endured four devastating miscarriages, one life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, 20 rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, five egg collection procedures, and seven embryo transfer attempts. Five full years of ongoing treatment passed before they received the positive pregnancy news they had chased for so long.

    In a podcast interview earlier this year in May, Holland opened up about the emotional toll of repeated disappointment, explaining how the simple joy many expecting parents take for granted is slowly stripped away after multiple losses. “I think the hard part about infertility and pregnancy loss is that beautiful naivety of just seeing a double line on a pregnancy test is robbed from you,” she explained. “Because the first time you do it, it’s elation, it’s so exciting. Then the second time you do it, you’re cautiously excited. By the third and the fourth time, you think it’s catfishing you.”

    When Cutting announced the pregnancy three months before their daughter’s birth, he paid tribute to his wife’s resilience through years of physical and emotional strain. “Countless disappointments, hormones, surgeries … lead to this one,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I don’t know how she pushed through.”

    In a 2022 interview with Channel 7, Holland reflected on how the IVF process upended her expectations of what building a family would look like. “As someone who went in just wanting to freeze embryos until the time was ‘right’, I’ve grappled with the confusing feelings of the loss of any ‘normality’ of this process, feeling like the universe was telling me I’m not meant to be a mother,” she said. Despite years of setbacks, Holland never abandoned her hope of building a family with Cutting, a perseverance that has now rewarded her with the daughter she long dreamed of.

  • Russell qualifies on pole for sprint race as F1 returns at the Dutch GP

    Russell qualifies on pole for sprint race as F1 returns at the Dutch GP

    As Formula 1 roared back to action following its annual midseason summer break, Friday at Circuit Zandvoort delivered high-stakes qualifying drama for the Dutch Grand Prix’s sprint race, with Mercedes driver George Russell edging out the field to secure a critical pole position.

    Russell clocked a lap just 0.041 seconds faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris, the defending winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix, to claim top spot on the sprint grid. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc followed close behind in third, finishing a mere 0.014 seconds behind Norris in one of the tightest qualifying sessions of the 2025 season. Championship standings leader Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s teenage Mercedes teammate, ended the session in fifth, revealing post-qualifying that damage from an early off-track excursion into a gravel trap had hampered his performance. “There were a couple of holes in the floor of the car from the run through gravel,” Antonelli explained. His closest title contender, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, fared even worse, securing only seventh place on the grid.

    For Russell, the pole position marks a much-needed momentum boost after a challenging run of results. The British driver has not stood atop the podium since the Austrian Grand Prix in June, and a series of software glitches impacting his Mercedes powertrain’s energy management have left him struggling to match the pace of his teenage teammate. A near-stall at last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix compounded his bad luck, leaving him 59 points adrift of Antonelli in the drivers’ championship. “It was a tough end to the first half of the season,” Russell acknowledged after qualifying. “But today the lap felt really good — it all came together nicely.”

    Earlier in the day, the only practice session played out on a rapidly evolving drying track following an early rain shower, keeping teams on their toes as they adjusted to changing grip levels. Antonelli topped the practice timing sheets, putting down the fastest lap despite the tricky conditions. While rainy conditions briefly raised the prospect of the sport’s new 2026 regulation cars testing their heavy electrical power in wet race conditions for the first time, the circuit dried out quickly ahead of qualifying, leaving the entire sprint session to run on a fully dry surface.

    This weekend’s event carries extra significance: it marks the sixth and final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort after the race returned to the F1 calendar in 2021. Organizers kicked off event weekend Thursday with a stadium playing of 1980s rock anthem *The Final Countdown* to mark the occasion. Unlike many F1 events that rely on public government support, the Zandvoort race is privately funded, and organizers announced back in 2024 that they would opt to “go out on a high” rather than take on growing financial and operational risks, confirming this edition would be the last for the foreseeable future.

    The Dutch GP also stands out for its unique fan experience: the tight, seaside resort location means most attendees are banned from driving to the circuit per local traffic rules. Instead, thousands of fans travel to Zandvoort by train from Amsterdam, while tens of thousands more embrace a distinctly Dutch tradition — cycling to the race.

    Friday also held last-minute drama for the Red Bull team: reserve driver Liam Lawson was called up to the main squad just this week after regular driver Isack Hadjar suffered a wrist injury that ruled him out of the event. Lawson has only tested the 2026-spec Red Bull in a hastily arranged simulator session on Wednesday, and still managed to qualify 11th. The last-minute promotion pushed Yuki Tsunoda back to the Racing Bulls squad, where he also made a quick adjustment: he had not raced the 2026 regulation car at all prior to this weekend, and secured 12th position in qualifying. The event also made headlines earlier in the week when three-time defending champion Max Verstappen announced he had signed a new contract extension with Red Bull keeping him with the team through 2030, ending widespread speculation about a potential exit from the sport.

  • Man City agrees to club-record sale of Savinho to Tottenham in $115M deal, AP source says

    Man City agrees to club-record sale of Savinho to Tottenham in $115M deal, AP source says

    English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City has struck a preliminary agreement to send Brazilian winger Savinho to Tottenham Hotspur in a deal valued at £85 million ($115 million), multiple sources familiar with the confidential transaction confirmed to the Associated Press on Friday. This transfer will become the highest outgoing sale in Manchester City’s club history, marking another major step in the club’s dramatic summer roster restructuring.

    The insider requested anonymity because neither club has authorized the public release of transfer details, and representatives from both Manchester City and Tottenham have so far declined to issue any official statement on the deal.

    Savinho’s impending exit comes just days after Manchester City sold Spanish international captain Rodri to FC Barcelona for 76.5 million euros ($88.5 million). This offseason has already seen a historic exodus of first-team talent from City: midfielders Tijjani Reijnders and defender Nathan Ake have also departed, while veteran starters John Stones and Bernardo Silva have left the club upon the expiration of their contracts. Up to this point, City’s only senior outfield addition has been English midfielder Elliot Anderson, who joined for a reported incoming club-record fee of £116 million ($155 million).

    The roster overhaul comes as City enters a new era under newly appointed manager Enzo Maresca, who took over the role following Pep Guardiola’s long-awaited departure after multiple trophy-laden seasons. With City’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the recent Community Shield still fresh, the club is widely expected to make additional moves in the final week of the summer transfer window as Maresca fine-tunes his squad for the upcoming campaign.

    When Savinho arrived at Manchester City from sister club Girona in summer 2024 for 40 million euros ($43.6 million), he was introduced to fans as one of the most promising young wingers in European soccer. However, the 25-year-old failed to meet the high expectations attached to his transfer: he managed just two goals across 53 Premier League appearances, and inconsistent final balls and questionable on-pitch decision-making left teammates and supporters underwhelmed. He was also left out of Brazil’s final squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, capping off a disappointing tenure at the Etihad Stadium.

    For Tottenham, the potential signing of Savinho would cap off a record-breaking summer of spending that marks a stark shift from the club’s previous transfer strategy. Manager Roberto De Zerbi is currently overhauling the squad after Tottenham narrowly avoided Premier League relegation on the final matchday of the 2025-26 season, a result that extended the club’s run of consecutive 17th-place league finishes to two seasons. The poor on-pitch performance prompted major changes at the leadership level, with chairman Peter Charrington admitting in a post-season open letter that “football success had not been driving our decisions” in previous transfer cycles.

    De Zerbi has already landed a series of high-profile signings this window: last month, Tottenham secured Italian midfielder Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United for a previous club-record £100 million ($133 million), just days after completing an £85 million ($113 million) move for midfielder Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United. Center backs Jan Paul van Hecke and Marco Senesi have also joined the club, as has former Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson. If the Savinho deal goes through, Tottenham will tie Chelsea as the biggest spenders in European men’s soccer this offseason, a dramatic reversal for a club that has long spent far less than its top Premier League rivals in the transfer market.

  • Top India court orders new steps to protect threatened elephants

    Top India court orders new steps to protect threatened elephants

    As habitat fragmentation and escalating human-elephant conflict push Asia’s endangered elephant population toward greater risk, India’s highest judicial body has enacted landmark new regulations to safeguard both wild and captive elephant populations across the country. Conservation advocates have broadly praised the ruling as a long-overdue intervention to reverse decades of unregulated habitat destruction.

    India hosts roughly 75% of the world’s remaining wild Asian elephants, a species categorized as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. In recent decades, rapid infrastructure expansion—including new highways, railways, and industrial mining operations—has split apart the large, contiguous habitats these wide-ranging animals require to forage, breed, and migrate between seasonal ranges. This fragmentation has forced increasing numbers of elephants into human settlements, sparking deadly conflict that kills hundreds of people and elephants annually in India.

    Issued by the Supreme Court of India on Monday, the new order mandates state governments to clear all existing blockages to critical elephant corridors, the narrow migratory routes that connect fragmented habitats for wandering herds. The ruling explicitly requires an immediate nationwide survey to map and document all man-made obstructions along these corridors, and bans the use of coercive tactics to force elephants off their traditional movement paths. One particularly harmful practice targeted by the ban is the so-called “hulla parties”, where large groups of people chase wild elephants out of farmland or settlements using fireballs and burning wooden stakes.

    The Supreme Court noted that federal guidelines mandating unobstructed access to elephant corridors have been in place for years, but widespread non-compliance and weak enforcement have left these critical routes largely blocked across most elephant range states. The public interest case that led to the ruling was led pro bono by prominent Indian wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra, a former member of the National Board for Wildlife, India’s top wildlife policy body. Bindra’s petition challenged state governments for endorsing the cruel, ineffective practices like hulla parties that do nothing to resolve long-term conflict and instead make encounters more dangerous.

    “It becomes a mob situation with thousands of people chasing the elephants using burning spears,” Bindra told reporters from Agence France-Presse. “That does nothing to resolve conflict; science shows it only exacerbates the conflict.”

    Current global population estimates place the total number of wild Asian elephants at fewer than 50,000 individuals, with more than 22,000 of those living across India, according to the Indian government’s 2025 national elephant survey. The 2025 survey delivered a stark warning: wild elephants now occupy just 3.5% of their historical range across India, confined to a tiny fraction of the land they once roamed freely. For conservationists, the new court order fills a critical enforcement gap that has allowed unchecked habitat destruction to continue.

    “We know where elephant corridors and habitats are — and they are being destroyed and fragmented at an unprecedented pace,” Bindra said. “The will to protect and preserve is markedly absent. We hope with this Supreme Court order, this survey must lead to action.”

    Beyond protections for wild herds, the Supreme Court issued a separate ruling on Tuesday mandating enhanced welfare standards for India’s more than 2,600 captive elephants. Once widely used for industrial logging, captive elephants are now kept primarily for religious ceremonies, tourism attractions, and entertainment events. The new regulations require every captive elephant to have up-to-date medical records and mandatory routine health checks to address widespread reports of neglect and abuse.

    Animal welfare organizations have welcomed the new captive elephant regulations, though many say the only long-term ethical solution is to end elephant captivity entirely. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, a leading animal rights group, applauded the measures to reduce captive animal suffering but reiterated its position that “no elephant belongs in captivity.”

    “Whether captured from the wild or bred for a lifetime of confinement, these intelligent, social animals are denied their forest homes, separated from their mothers, stripped of autonomy, enslaved, and controlled through intimidation and weapons,” PETA India director Poorva Joshipura told AFP.

    In a country where elephants hold deep cultural and religious significance—they are designated India’s national heritage animal, and revered by followers of the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesha—the ruling marks a turning point in balancing rapid economic development with the long-term survival of one of Asia’s most iconic endangered species.

  • Indonesia and China discuss increasing defense cooperation and energy security

    Indonesia and China discuss increasing defense cooperation and energy security

    High-stakes diplomatic meetings between top Indonesian and Chinese officials in Jakarta on Friday have opened a new chapter of bilateral cooperation, with the two nations committing to advance collaboration across defense, food security, energy, trade and cutting-edge technology while taking a unified stance against global coercion and historical revisionism.

    The talks brought together foreign and defense ministers from both countries, marking a formal step forward for the updated bilateral dialogue mechanism that the two sides have developed to align their policy priorities. Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono, who goes by a single name, outlined the broad scope of the talks after the meetings, noting that the new dialogue framework is designed to deliver tangible progress across five core pillars of partnership: political, economic, security, maritime, and people-to-people exchanges.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized that both sides have agreed to align their development and security priorities more closely, creating a robust foundation that will support each nation’s modernization goals. In a joint statement issued after the talks, Wang made clear the two countries’ shared commitment to upholding global order. “We will jointly oppose unilateral bullying and power politics. We must also remain vigilant against attempts in the region to challenge the outcomes of victory in World War II and turn back the wheel of history,” Wang said. “We should safeguard international fairness and justice, as well as the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.”

    Beyond diplomatic alignment, the talks covered concrete cooperation across economic and technological domains. Sugiono said ministers discussed strengthening food, energy, and mineral supply security by building strategic domestic industries that boost national resilience. The partnership will expand into new cutting-edge areas in coming years, including artificial intelligence research, co-development of communications satellites, and other advanced technology initiatives. The two sides also reached agreement to expand bilateral trade, with a focus on opening new markets and increasing access for Indonesia’s key commodity exports to China.

    Wang noted that the revitalized bilateral dialogue sends a powerful message of unity to the global community. “It [sends] a clear signal to the world of solidarity and cooperation between our two major emerging-market countries,” Wang added.

    In a separate meeting held alongside the foreign minister talks, defense ministers from both nations hammered out details for expanded defense cooperation. Indonesia’s Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said his counterpart, China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun, and he discussed expanding cooperation across multiple areas, including defense equipment supply, personnel training exchanges, and collaboration between the two countries’ domestic defense industries. Sjamsoeddin also extended an invitation to Chinese armed forces to take part in Indonesia’s Heping Garuda joint exercise, a step he described as a tangible demonstration of the growing military ties between the two nations.

    Economic relations between Indonesia and China have expanded rapidly in recent years, with total bilateral trade hitting roughly $167 billion in 2024. China has held the position of Indonesia’s largest trading partner for multiple consecutive years, and has invested tens of billions of dollars in large-scale infrastructure projects across Indonesia as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. Notable completed projects include the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the first high-speed rail line in Southeast Asia, and the Cirata floating solar farm, the largest facility of its kind in the region, located on a reservoir in West Java roughly 80 miles outside Jakarta. While minor disputes over project timelines and pricing have emerged during implementation, China has reaffirmed its commitment to completing all agreed projects in line with bilateral agreements.

    Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang in Beijing contributed reporting to this article.